Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is one of several paintings you can now explore in hyper-detail on an Italian website.

I love the difference in looking at a painting from a distance of ten feet or so, and then getting up close to look at the brush strokes. Of course, museum guards get a little nervous when you start getting really close to a painting, and sometimes there’s even a cord in place to keep you from doing just that.

Thanks to an Italian website, you can now explore some of the great Italian masterworks in amazing detail, all from the comfort of your home computer. For fun I took a virtual tour of Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” (or “Venus on the half shell” as we know it in my family). I was able to zoom in on her eyes and see the cracks in the paint. The clarity was stunning, and made me see Botticelli’s work with even greater appreciation.

Other paintings available for perusal include da Vinci’s The Last Supper and Annunciation, Caravaggio’s Bacchus and Agnolo Bronzino’s stunning Portrait of Eleonor of Toledo.